Drivers Like Me - an Update

Hello friends. You may remember that earlier this year, a not-so-friendly police officer scolded me for a slightly illegal left turn and suggested that "Drivers like me cause thousands of accidents every year." These words turned out to be prophetic.

Last Thursday, as I was driving home from work, I ended up taking a little detour to get out of the way of some emergency vehicles. While turning right at an unfamiliar intersection to get back to my freeway entrance, the sun was in my eyes and I managed to smack right into a cement barricade that separates the on-ramp from a side street. I hit the lower edge of the abutment, then my car slid up the ramp until it completely high-centered and all four of my tires were in the air. It's the kind of thing you would laugh at if you were driving by during rush hour (as many people were) and wonder "How in the world did that happen?" It's also the kind of thing that is not so funny when it happens to you!

The next few (seconds, minutes, hours - I really couldn't say) are kind of a blur. I know my cheek was bleeding and I had a killer headache and it was freezing cold until some friendly firefighters stopped to divert traffic and helped me into their nice, warm truck. I remember they talked about football and Space Burgers in Pocatello and one of the firemen made everything better by reminding me that "Stuff happens. Today it happened to you."

I also know my Dad and sister AND the tow truck got there before the police did. Which turned out great, because the fire fighters said that since there hadn't been any damage to city property... and since my car had been towed... and since they were going to take off... I could go too. (Translation: No Ticket!) So that was really nice.

I went to visit my poor car the next day at the shop. I felt really guilty. My Civic has always been so good to me - and what did I do? I drove it into a cement wall. Really, I felt horrible. I was pretty sure I had done so much damage that they were going to have to total my car. But the mechanic said the radiator was going to have to be replaced for sure (I guess it's not good when there's a huge hole even the untrained eye can see) and obviously some work to the underside of my car. But the shop has worked their magic and apparently I can pick up my car this very afternoon.

So that's the story. You heard it here first. As I told my co-workers when I made it into work Friday afternoon - we're not really laughing at this yet. The ONLY acceptable response at this point is, "We're glad you're all right."

And I am glad - and slightly amazed - that things turned out as well as they did.